Hogwarts? WHAT THE HELL IS THIS CRAP!
by windows fail maker
Summary: Lara lived a friendless, miserable life... Until she crashed her brother's car, blew up her Science classroom, got expelled from school and knocked her dad out cold. The weird letter that turned up in the mail afterwards was just a dumb prank, right?
1. Chapter 1

Notes: I've used some lines out of the books for some parts which you can probably tell, so I'm just putting this here to say that I'm not claiming to own anything that you recognise from the Harry Potter books. The only things that are originally mine are all the non-Harry Potter characters and the story plot and stuff.

This story also has swearing in parts of it, and mean insults, so if you don't like that sort of stuff, I wouldn't suggest reading. But yeah. :D I hope people like this, because I think it's pretty unique.

**Chapter 1**

I'd always been a calm person. People could insult me for hours on end, but I'd never have the heart to say anything back because I always thought 'Oh, maybe they have a bad life, Maybe this, Maybe that…' but that kind of attitude would never get me anywhere. All I ever did was think of other people, and all they did was walk all over me… but something was different when I woke up that morning. Today, I wasn't taking shit from anyone. I was angry.

I woke up to my ten-year old sister Veronica jumping all over my bed.

'Get _out_ of my room!' I groaned.

'Dad is saying you have to get up.'

'And _I'm_ saying GET THE HELL OUT!'

I never usually yelled at her like that, so she did as she was told, and luckily she was smart enough not to go and dob to Dad.

I hated Dad. He was not a good father. Seriously.

Half of his life was spent sitting in his room drinking vodka and beer until one of us gave him an excuse to come out and yell. A few years ago, I had dubbed him 'The Caveman' and I'd been calling him that behind his back ever since.

I had no plans whatsoever to go to school that day, because it was the last day of term for the year and I hated school with a passion. Normally, I would have killed to stay at home, but after hearing the way The Caveman was bellowing from the kitchen, I decided that it wasn't a good idea to ask for the day off. I had vegemite on toast for breakfast, smearing it on thick like I always did. My uniform looked even stupider than usual because it was all crinkled, but I wasn't in the mood to go and iron it. I put some eyeliner on and tried to make my hair look at least half-decent, but it wouldn't do anything interesting so I just shoved it into a ponytail and stuffed my feet into my lame old shoes. The only thing I liked about my appearance was the purple streak I'd dyed into my plain brown hair not too long ago.

I ended up late for school as usual, which meant I had to sit in a car with my dumb brother Jake and his ditzy girlfriend Vanessa. To be honest, I would have rather walked forty minutes in the scorching heat. According to The Caveman though, I didn't have a choice.

Jake was the dumbest boy I knew. He was seventeen but acted about five. There was always a bunch of stupid pranks up his sleeve which he thought were the most hilarious things in the world, but really, they were dumb. Just like him. Vanessa was just as dumb as him… so they deserved each other, but I still found it impossible to understand how any girl would ever want to date him. He was dumb, AND ugly.

He started to crack one of his jokes, but luck was on my side because as soon as I got angry enough to snap at him, his brakes stuffed up and the car nearly smashed into a fence.

'Woah, what the heck?' He yelped.

Vanessa sat there screaming like a two year old.

'Maybe you should learn to drive, retard.'

The words escaped my mouth before I had a chance to stop them. I grabbed my bag and jumped out of the car before Jake could get his revenge, then I legged it down the street to school. I felt lighter for some reason, and running seemed unusually easy. I had no idea what had come over me today, but I liked it a lot. It was going to be an interesting day.

The office ladies had the usual bored expression on my face when I went to get my late note.

'Do you have a reason for being late every day?'

'Sleeping in.' I replied blandly.

'Do you have a note from your parents?'

'No.'

'If you are late again, A letter will have to be sent home because you haven't been bringing a note.'

'Does it look like I care?'

She shot me the filthiest look I'd ever received in my life.

'I didn't think so.'

Smirking, I snatched the late note and ran away, not giving a crap about getting in trouble later. I barged into my Science classroom without knocking, but the teacher was too involved in explaining the boring lesson to pay attention. The girls up the back were whispering things as I sat at the table in front of them. Usually, I would have just ignored them, so I did exactly that… for about five minutes before I turned around and screamed 'SHUT UP!'

All they did was laugh, which pissed me off even more because I was expecting they'd at least be a bit intimidated. Rochelle, the skinniest one with the thickest makeup ever and over-bleached hair just sneered at me and said 'Wow, Little Lara finally got the guts to say something for once'

'Yeah, too bad she's still just a sad little junkie with no friends' her friend Tabitha replied.

'I know, I'm so sad that I don't have any friends in this shithole of a school because you're all just so FRIENDLY aren't you… You know, I've ALWAYS wanted to be friends with you girls especially, because you're just such nice people and not try-hard judgemental bitches or anything…'

'GIRLS!' The teacher yelled.

'You're such a grotty little weirdo.'

'Did you steal that thing around your neck?' Tabitha laughed.

'Obviously, how else could she afford real gold?' Rochelle answered for her.

I squeezed my hand tightly around my mum's necklace. It would have usually soothed me, but at that moment all I could feel was an angry balloon swelling up inside me.

'Imagine what her parents are like. How else could someone as ugly as her be possible?' One of the boys added.

'Yeah have you seen her dad? Full Alco.'

'Imagine what her _mum _looks like…'

'Probably just as ugly and—'

'DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE TALK ABOUT MY MUM!' I screamed so loud that the whole class just shut up. Rochelle went to laugh and after that, everything happened so fast that I could barely register it. All the lights in the room sparked and went out. The glass cabinets on the wall smashed into smithereens and my stool flung across the room and hit Rochelle in the head. Everyone gasped and looked straight at me, and it was then I'd realised that I was the one who threw the stool. I didn't remember it. I didn't remember even picking it up… but no one else could have done it.

The next thing I knew, I was in the principal's office.

'and the consequences of your actions are very severe. Blah blah blah Rochelle has received serious injuries Blah blah blah I cannot believe that you Blah blah blah irreplaceable damage to school property blah blah blah I will have to decide—'

'Look, She got what was coming for her and if it hadn't been me throwing that stool at her, I'm pretty sure she would have got hit by a bus or something'

He looked at me with a bewildered expression on his face.

'Just expel me already. You know you want to.'

He did exactly that.

He went through the computers and did a bunch of stuff. The deputy principals were coming in and out, saying stuff that I didn't care enough about to listen to.

'Are you able to call your parents to pick you up?'

'No.' I replied bluntly.

'Why not?'

'Cause my dad doesn't drive' I lied. I didn't really feel like dying in a car crash today.

'What about your mum? Can't you call her to come and get you?'

'No.'

'And why not?'

'Because she's dead.'

He made a noise that sounded like a wounded animal before saying 'I'm sorry…'

'Whatever. I'm gonna go now. Bye' I turned around and walked out and nobody in the room had the heart to say anything. Dumb bastards. They should have known about my mum. There were never any contact details or any mention of her in my school file so did they think she just magically appeared when she was needed or something? Idiots.

I was dancing down the street on my way home, ready to throw a party. Getting expelled from that hellhole was worth a trillion dollars. I'd always hated it there. I didn't care about education and all that dumb crap, and I really didn't think it was worth it to put up with a bunch of stuck-up teenagers and unfair teachers who all hated you. Was it worth it to be teased every day of your life? Was it worth it to be judged and insulted for no reason at all? Was it worth it to sit through dumb exams and do like a thousand assignments just to end up with a percentage on a piece of paper? The answer was no. I didn't care. They could all get stuffed.

The Caveman cared though. He got a call from the school and I heard him throw the phone and bellow like a baboon. He came running out into the hallway, yelling so loudly that he was practically screaming. If he'd been out of my view, I would have thought that he was an elephant on speed.

'WHATS THIS ABOUT YOU BEING EXPELLED?'

'Well, I got expelled.'

'CLEARLY!'

'Then why'd you ask?'

'DON'T BE SMART WITH ME GIRL! YOU'RE IN DEEP SHIT NOW!' He smashed his alcohol bottle against the wall. 'THIS IS BULLSHIT! I DIDN'T PAY FOR YOU TO GO TO SCHOOL FOR TEN YEARS SO THAT YOU COULD GO AND PULL THIS SHIT!'

I found it kind of sad that the only thing he was worried about was all the money he had payed, not the fact that his daughter had nearly killed someone with a stool.

'OH WELL IT WAS A HOLE AND I GOT TREATED LIKE SHIT! Oh wait; I get treated like shit here too! FAR OUT DAD YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!'

'DO YOU THINK IF YOUR MUM WAS ALIVE SHE WOULD BE PROUD OF HOW YOU'VE TURNED OUT?'

That was something that just shouldn't have been said. He was the one who was an aggressive, uncaring alcoholic. He hadn't turned out any better than me. The balloon of anger welled up in my chest again.. I swear I didn't even move, but The Caveman flew back and smashed into a wall like a rhinoceros had just rammed him down.

'Dad…?' I whimpered, but he was out cold. Not dead, but knocked out. I didn't know what to do, but I wasn't calling an ambulance because I knew they'd blame me. I slowly shifted back into my room and sat in silence, wondering why the hell everything was so weird today and how all of a sudden I was speaking my mind to everyone. I'd never done anything like that before. It was like I'd been holding back everything for so long that it was all finally coming out. I was definitely going to get charged for all the damage I'd done to the science lab… and to Rochelle… and I was scared as hell that The Caveman would wake up any second and break my door down. Why was I like this?

Then all of a sudden I thought of a possibility. I'd been holding my necklace when the stool flew at Rochelle.

'…Mum?' I whispered.

But there was no response.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

I woke up in peace the next morning, surprised that The Caveman hadn't been in to yell at me for yesterday yet. He was still in a shitty mood when I went out to make my toast, grunting to himself '…ungrateful bitch… payed all that money…bloody teenagers…' but he seemed to have no recollection of being knocked out. Thank god.

'Schools out, Schooool's out, scream and shout! HOORAY!' Veronica was jumping on the lounge singing. Jake came out of his room with the usual smart-arse grin on his face and a cigarette in his hand.

'Shut up squirt!' he snapped at Veronica, then lowered his voice to say something to me. The stench of his breath made me want to vomit everywhere.

'Everyone's talking about what happened at school. You're a bloody psycho.'

'Yeah be careful Jake, because you'll be next.' I gave him the coldest glare I could, then sighed on my way out to get the mail. Of course I was glad that I didn't have to go back to school… ever… but I was still bummed that I was stuck in this crammed house with my dysfunctional family.

'Bills… Bills… Bills… Huh?'

A weird-looking letter caught my attention. It interested me for a second, but then I read the front of it.

_Miss L. Silver_

_The Middle Bedroom,_

_41 Bruce Parade_

_Coachwood, New south wales,_

_Australia._

'Oh come on…' I turned it over and saw a sticker type thing that looked like some sort of crest, but I didn't have a proper look. I just ripped it off and pulled out the letter, because I had a decent idea of what it was. It was written on yellowy-coloured paper in emerald green ink. Where on earth did Jake learn to write so neat? And in a cool slanty style too. He probably got Vanessa to do it. I probably didn't even have to read the letter to know what it would say. Most likely something similar to what he'd written on my Christmas card last year.

'**Jingle bells,**

**Lara smells, (like shit)**

**She should go,**

**Straight to hell.**

**Ha ha ha.'**

Yeah, probably. Knowing Jake.

I reluctantly sat on the driveway and started to read.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_Dear Miss Silver,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

I didn't need to read anymore. I'd read enough.

Storming up the stairs, I barged into Jake and flapped the letter in his face.

'This is probably the dumbest thing you've ever thought of. Actually I'm impressed that you were smart enough to spell the words right. Good joke Jake, good joke.'

He gave me a funny look. 'You're a nutcase.'

'Oh my god… don't play dumb with me, retard. Come on. Hogwarts? WHAT THE HELL IS THIS CRAP?' I used the letter to smack him across the face.

'Stop it, bitch! Gimme a look.' He tried to snatch the letter off me.

'Get stuffed, you should know what it says. You were the one who wrote it.'

He laughed. 'I didn't write that shit'

'Ohhh of COURSE not. Who else would know which bedroom I sleep in, and why else would you be laughing?'

'It's funny, because I actually didn't write it.'

'You're so hopeless Jake. You fail!' I crushed the letter into a ball and threw it at his face.

'OUCH! BITCH! That really hurt!'

'Oh have a sook! Bullshit it hurt! It's a peace of fricking paper!'

But when he lowered his hands from his face, there was actually a massive red mark where the paper ball had hit him. Oh well.

He bent down to un-crinkle the paper and started to read his own dumb letter.

'Holy shit, this is great!' He laughed, slapping his thighs. 'See, I'm not the only one who thinks you're an evil witch!'

'Whatevs.' I wasn't in the mood to put up with his crap so I flopped onto the lounge and ignored him. I jumped at a loud popping noise outside, and right afterward, there was a quiet knock on the door.

'Oh, that's probably Vanessa… HOLY SHIT WHAT THE HELL?' He erupted in laughter all over again like a hyena on crack.

'Ah, Jacob… 'The voice of an elderly man spoke softly.

'What the hell man! No one calls me that! Who the hell are you?'

The man chuckled and stepped inside. He was wearing a long, magenta coloured cloak thing, and his silver beard looked long enough to wrap around his neck as a scarf.

Veronica was bewildered as she entered the room and sat down beside me quietly, waiting for something to happen.

'Look, I don't know how much he's paying you or whatever but can we please just stop this shit because I'm over it already.' I drawled to the man.

'Paying me?' He chuckled again. 'I have a lot of explaining to do, don't I. Hmm… where to start… I told Hagrid that the letter would be a bad idea…'

'Who the hell is Hagrid?' Jake was confused now.

'Who the fuck's this bloke?'

Oh great, The Caveman had entered the room.

'Hello Anthony, I am professor Dumbledore.'

'Professor? Does he mean as in one of those doctor ones?' Veronica whispered into my ear.

'I don't fricking know!' I hissed nervously.

'Dumbledore? Nice joke, pal. What the fuck are you doing in my house?' The Caveman's mouth was hanging slightly open, his face scrunched up in confusion and frustration.

'I'm here to speak to your daughter, Lara'

'Who, Me?'

'Lara's in a fuckload of trouble and I'm not letting some old prick come in here and 'speak' to her. Who the fuck do you think you are, mate?'

'That kind of language is unnecessary.'

The Caveman gave him a look of rage and went to go on a rant. Mr Dumbledore put his hand into one of his pockets and pulled out what looked like a polished stick. He pointed it at Dad before saying something like 'Petrillius Tobalis' …or something jibberish like that. The Caveman's face and body went completely rigid, and he toppled a little before just standing there as still as a statue. I knew, there and then, that whatever this was, this was not a joke, because no one could ever get my dad to go quiet like that. Even Jake was nervous now. He stood near the front door like he was ready to run out there in panic.

'I see that your father is not the most pleasant of people…' He spoke calmly to the three of us, pulling the chair out from the computer and sitting down. He looked amused and spun around in it once before saying 'Ah, This is an interesting contraption.'

'It's a computer chair.' Veronica said blankly.

He mumbled something that sounded like 'Muggle invention' before adjusting his half-moon glasses to sit properly on his long, crooked nose.

'Ok… so… who the hell are you?' Jake asked again.

'I have told you. My name is Professor Dumbledore.'

He spun the chair to face me directly.

'I'm the headmaster at a school called Hogwarts. You would have read that part of the letter, I assume?'

I nodded.

'I see that you have been the target of your brother's many pranks… but I assure you that this is not a silly joke. I have come to offer you a place at my school… your new school, if you would like to come.'

'But…Why me?'

'Have you not noticed that you are special, Lara?'

'LOL! L-O-L ! I TOLD YOU YOU'RE A RETARD! YOU'RE A NUTCASE! HA HA!' Jake cracked up yet again.

'Silencio.' Dumbledore spoke, and Jake's mouth froze shut. He freaked out and tried to open it again, going into a silent frenzy and running off into his room in fear.

'Hogwarts is not a school for the disabled, nor is it a school for nutcases as Jacob calls them. It is a school for people with special abilities.'

'I don't have any though…'

'I beg to differ.'

'But…' I started, but suddenly remembered yesterday. The stool, the cabinets, The Caveman…

He smiled and nodded when he saw my look of realisation.

'Hogwarts… is a school of Magic.'

Normally I would have said 'Yeah right!' and told him to piss off, but I didn't know what to believe anymore. There was something in Dumbledore's eyes that made me want to believe him, but how?

'You are special in more ways than one, Lara. Your magical powers were previously unknown, because they have been kept in so well for so long. I'm surprised the incidents at your school did not turn out any worse. It is dangerous for magic to be left untamed and suppressed, especially at your age, and being from a non-wizarding family… But your skill of holding in emotion and your kind nature has allowed you to manage.'

'Me though… why me?' Was all that I could say.

'You're unique. A case like this has never been recorded in wizarding history. Hogwarts usually sends out acceptance letters when young witches and wizards reach the age of eleven, but there was no detection of your magic, especially because you are from Australia… there has not been a witch or wizard in Australia for centuries. Nobody expected this.'

I hung onto Dumbledore's every word, shaking a little, finding it hard to get breath. I was so overwhelmed and shocked that I didn't even say anything. Veronica was doing the same, her mouth hanging half open. She hadn't made a sound in so long, I almost forgot that she was there next to me.

'So what do I… wait, if you're supposed to start at eleven… I'm fifteen! What do I do? I'll be so behind…'

'Your magic is strong, Lara, and I believe that once you learn basic skills on controlling it, we can expect great things from you. Of course, you won't be placed into First year, you will attend normal fifth-year lessons, but a student has offered to help train you outside of classes, and teach you the skills. That is, if you decide to come.'

I didn't have to think too much about that, being in my situation.

'Anywhere's better than here.'

He smiled. 'We don't usually send acceptance letters out to different countries… so this shall be interesting.'

'Wait, so where is Hogwarts then?'

'England.'

'Holy crap, how are we going to get all the way over there?'

'It'll be much quicker than you think.'


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

I still didn't believe half of what was happening. It just felt like I was stuck in a big massive dream. I freaked out to Dumbledore because of everything I'd done at school, but he'd told me that there was a Ministry of Magic who had taken care of everything… and somehow it was all okay so he mustn't have been lying. Apparently Rochelle didn't even remember who I was anymore. Yay. He also explained how Hogwarts was the type of school where you practically lived there besides the holidays, which made me really happy because I needed a lot of time away from home.

I found a random old suitcase and packed a bunch of clothes, and random other stuff like notebooks, pens, and a few of my favourite books. I didn't really have anything that meant much to me, except for a few photos of my mum, and one photo of the family when we were all actually happy together. I packed the necessities too, such as my toothbrush, hairbrush, deodorant and all that jazz. I was worried because I didn't have any money, but Dumbledore told me about a fund at Hogwarts that helped people who didn't have enough money to buy all the schoolbooks and robes. Even though I'd have to get most things second hand, I didn't mind at all. Apparently we were going to a place called Diagon Alley. I'd never heard of it in my life, but Dumbledore was somehow going to take me, which was good because I knew that I had no hopes in hell of finding it myself.

Jake was no longer silenced and The Caveman was no longer frozen solid, but they still remained quiet as I came outside with my suitcase ready to leave right there and then. It was just as much of a shock to them as it was for me. Even The Caveman was too stunned to have a spaz about his daughter being a witch and going off to a random school with some magic bloke. Everything was explained to them when I had been in my room packing.

I couldn't believe what I was doing… travelling off to England with a man I'd just met who claimed to be a wizard, I was going to live at a school with other 'witches and wizards'… What the hell? Normally I would have never gone along with this… but then again, I was starting to stop believing in the word 'normal' altogether after everything that had happened in the past 24 hours.

It was the first time in years since any of my family had shown any emotion towards me. Veronica cuddled me and had a little cry saying 'I'm going to miss you Lara!' and without being told or anything, Jake came right up to me and hugged me too. 'Sorry Lara…' He whispered so that only I could hear him… and somehow I knew that he actually meant it. Even the caveman gave me a hug, trying not to show any emotion, but mumbling 'Have a good time' all the same. I guess he was happy about not having to pay any fines or settle any court cases over his crazy daughter.

'I'll write to you somehow, okay?'

I turned around and took one last look at my house, then shuffled my feet a bit hesitantly, before finally facing Dumbledore.

'Are you ready to leave?'

I nodded.

'Take hold of my arm and keep still. On a count of three, one, two—'

There was a loud popping noise and my head was whirling and I was spinning around and my head was hurting and then just as suddenly, it was all over and I was somewhere completely different.

'Holy flying shit…' I gasped. I had no idea what had just happened, but clearly I wasn't in Australia anymore. I had never heard of a place in England like this though. It was a cobbled street which appeared to be some sort of shopping mall, but nothing like the boring ones back home. There weren't many people, which I assumed was because the term had already started at Hogwarts which was where most people were. All the ones here were wearing the same kind of outfits as Dumbledore. Some of the older women even wore pointed hats, like the witches I'd seen in movies. Although every witch I'd seen in a movie had been ugly and mean, not to mention green-skinned and filled with warts… the witches here were actually quite pretty, and most of them looked nice too. Dumbledore must have been well known because everywhere we went, people would say hello to him. I just kept getting funny looks, probably because my outfit looked so unusual in contrast to what they wore.

I looked around at all the different shops, amazed at the things that could be bought. Broomsticks?, Owls… Spellbooks…

I knew I had no time to have a thorough look around here though, so I didn't say anything, I just walked alongside Dumbledore, gawking around at everything.

I had my robes fitted, (what a weird uniform!) bought a bunch of books, a cauldron… a cauldron for pete's sake! A trunk for my things and some other strange things to use for school. I had a feeling that this school was not going to be like my old one. Even if everyone ended up hating me at Hogwarts too, I knew I'd at least have fun in lessons. There was only one thing left for me to buy. A wand.

Dumbledore led me straight into a shop called 'Ollivanders' filled with nothing but boxes and boxes of them. I had thought that the shop was empty until a guy with white hair seemed to appear out of nowhere. Dumbledore explained why I was there, and introduced me to the man, Ollivander, who just looked at me with his piercing blue eyes and said 'Australian!... curious… very curious…'

I wanted to ask him what the hell he was on about, but before I had a chance to open my mouth, he had turned around and was rummaging through the boxes before he pulled one right from the very bottom. Were all wands different or something? I didn't understand how he could tell them all apart by just the box. He held out the wand and asked me which one was my wand arm… and I had no idea how to answer so I just assumed it was the same as the hand you wrote with, taking the wand with my left hand.

'Try this one. Eight inches, Maple and Unicorn hair. Just give it a wave.'

I felt like an idiot standing there holding a 'magic wand' wondering if it would even do anything, but as soon as I flicked it a bit, some sparks shot out and I flew backwards, crashing into the wall.

'Oh dear! Definitely not. I see what you mean about supressed powers… very well…' He shuffled around a bit before pulling out a few different options, which ended in similar results. My joints were hurting from being thrown all over the place, and I had a feeling that things like that didn't normally happen while shopping for wands… although I was grateful that at least something was happening instead of me just waving it around like a little kid playing dress ups.

'Another tricky customer… similar to Harry Potter on his first visit… Hmmm… have a go at this one… very unusual combination indeed… Rosewood and Veela hair, 11 inches.'

I didn't know who Harry Potter was or how I was similar to him, or what on earth a Veela hair was, but the questions in my mind vanished when I took the wand and my hand felt warm, almost hot. I waved it and a thick silver beam shot out of it faster than the speed of light, and turned into glitter dust as it hit the wall.

'Bravo! Very, Very good! Well well well… We can be expecting some impressive skill from you, Lara.'

'How come this one works but the others don't?' I wondered aloud.

'The wand chooses the witch… although It's not always clear why.'


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Hogwarts was a castle. A REAL castle, big enough to fit my whole street in it. It felt like I was in the middle of a movie or something because a place this amazing just _couldn't _exist. Could it?

Dumbledore was great. He showed me directions to most of the basic places I would need to go, and he did this cool spell on my suitcase which made all of my stuff rise out and pack itself into my new trunk. I didn't have to carry anything because everything was getting sent up into my dorms once I got sorted… which I was pretty nervous about because Dumbledore had told me that all the houses were equally great… but I knew that if this was anything at all like my old school, each one would definitely have a reputation. He walked me down the massive corridor, explaining to me about how the sorting worked…. And I was practically shitting myself because once I walked into the great hall, everyone just _looked _at me. I didn't really feel like sitting there in front of everyone but it would all be over soon. I just had to keep calm before I passed out. I walked right up to the front on my way to sit on the rickety stool. I felt at least a couple hundred pairs of eyes on me, coming from each of the four long tables. For some reason though, I didn't feel intimidated anymore. They were whispering things, but I could tell that it was out of curiosity, not meanness. They were obviously aware that I was coming. It had probably been explained already. I sat down and looked around the huge room… and holy flying shit… there was no roof. My sight was blocked a second later by a dusty old hat. Ok so how the hell does this get me sorted into a house?

'Ahh… an Australian… never seen one of those….'

What the hell? I swear that hat just spoke to me… I was going mad.

'You're far from mad. Very brave I see… observant… kind… but where to put you?'

'Ummm well It's not like I know anything about the different houses, so anywhere will do really…' I thought to myself, knowing that the hat would hear me, although I still didn't understand how.

'I see what you're capable of. You'll make some _excellent _changes to this school… Ah, I know. Better be… SLYTHERIN!'

The hat shouted my house out to the whole of the great hall, and everyone clapped like mad, especially the people on the last table which I was guessing to be the Slytherin one. Some people looked a bit worried, but none of them looked judgemental or anything so I smiled optimistically on my way past everyone before sitting down in a gap at the table between a small brunette girl and a tall, chubby black-haired boy. Once I sat down, everyone went straight back to their meal, except a few random people who glanced back at me every now and then.

I didn't know whether or not to introduce myself, but I was HUNGRY, so I helped myself to the food before I thought about deciding what to say. I grabbed a piece of bread roll and looked around for a jar of vegemite but I couldn't see one anywhere.

'Hey… Is there any vegemite?' I asked, still looking around. The people around me shot me some strange looks before the girl next to me asked 'What's Vegemite?'

'Never heard of it. Probably some muggle stuff.' The blonde boy sitting across from me answered her.

'Wait, ARE YOU KIDDING? THERE'S NO VEGEMITE?'

He looked like no one had ever raised his voice at him before, shocked for a minute before slumping into his chair and muttering '…don't know how a mudblood got into Slytherin.'

'Draco! Don't be mean!' The girl next to me snapped at him.

'What's a muggle?' I asked, ignoring his attempt at an insult or whatever he was trying to do.

'Non-magic people' Said another boy at the table.

'Well obviously I'm not a muggle if I'm sitting here right now. And what the hell is a mudblood?'

'It means… dirty blood. Someone who isn't from a wizarding family… it's a really mean thing to say to someone…' Said the girl next to me quietly.

I looked at Draco before laughing. 'Dirty blood? Come on. Are you kidding? That's meant to be insulting?'

Everyone that had heard me swivelled their heads and looked at me in confusion. I guessed that insults in this world were different to the ones in the 'Muggle' world. I laughed again. Seriously… mudblood. That didn't offend me at all. I thought it sounded hilarious. It rhymed too.

Draco had nothing to say after that. He looked at me with confusion for a while before shrugging and going back to his food. I hoped I'd earned his respect. I didn't feel like being 'insulted' by the people I had to be around constantly for the next term.

'I like your accent!' The girl next to me complimented.

'I don't have an accent, you do!' I laughed before realising that I was in a different country and everyone in this whole room talked completely differently to me. She smiled at my look of realisation.

'I'm Nicki' She introduced herself.

'I'm Lara' I smiled back.

'I know… I mean… Hi Lara, welcome to Hogwarts.' She laughed again.

I liked Nicki already. She was nice to me. Not many people had ever been nice to me before.

'So… there's seriously no Vegemite?'

'Nope.'

'Aw, nooooooooooo' I whined before shrugging and eating the bread roll by itself.

'Next time I go home, I'm gonna come back with like 100 massive jars. What's there to drink? Is there any Pepsi? Aw there's not… What's this stuff?' I held up a jug of orange liquid.

'Pumpkin juice' Draco said blankly.

'Really? Wait, so it's like liquidised pumpkins. Does it taste any good? I've had carrot juice before and that was all right but I've never liked pumpkins that much, they're too pumpkiny… pumkinish… is that a word? Hmmm…'

I ignored everyone's funny looks before taking a drink of the juice.

'That's actually pretty good. I understand why you drink it… but I can't believe you don't have Pepsi or Fanta or anything. That sucks. Oh well. There's good food here.'

I grabbed a chicken wing and scoffed it down, not wanting to look up because I knew I was getting stared at by a lot of confused witches and wizards.

'You're very…. Different.' Nicki told me.

'Is that good or bad?' I got a bit nervous.

'No it's good, It's just… different. Good though. You're funny. I like you.'

'Epic …No one's ever said that to me before.' I blushed a little.

'Yeah. I thought you would have had plenty of friends back at your house.'

'Nope… I've never had a friend…' I admitted, but straight away wished I hadn't.

'Honestly?' She looked shocked. 'Why not?'

'No one liked me…'

'Oh… well I don't see why they didn't. Don't worry though, you'll be well liked here. You already are. Everyone's been talking about you.'

'They have? Wait… seriously? What have they been saying? How do you know if they like me or not?'

'Don't stress, It's only been good things. Everyone is excited because we've never gotten a student from another country, and because you were practically a Muggle until a couple of days ago they're all dying to know how your magic came through without blowing up your school or house' She laughed.

'Well… I did blow up my Science classroom and hit some bitch in the head with a stool…' I'd tried to say it quietly but I'd failed because the people around me were now staring harder than ever, waiting for me to tell them more.

'I didn't mean to… I didn't do it on purpose or anything, I just… well I did hate her but I never wanted to really hurt her, she just said something heaps mean and it just happened… and then I got expelled and everything and my dad was really really angry and said mean stuff so I ended up knocking him out somehow and then I got this weird letter and my brother's a real dick so I thought he was doing a crappy prank on me but then Dumbledore rocked up and yeah…'

'I'm surprised you didn't _kill_ her' said the boy next to me.

'I'm glad I didn't. I mean don't get me wrong, I hate her guts and she's a real bitch! But I didn't want her to _die…_'

They were all looking at me dumbstruck, like I was some sort of celebrity.

'I suppose Dumbledore hushed it all up' Draco assumed.

'Yeah he told me something about the Ministry so that's good, because I don't feel like getting sent to a mental ward anytime soon.'

'Old prat…' he muttered.

'Who, Dumbledore? No he isn't, _you're_ the prat. Who says 'prat' as an insult anyway? He's really nice. He came and picked me up and took me to Diagon alley, and he gave me money and took me to get all my school stuff and everything. And he had to cover it up otherwise my dad would have had to pay heaps of fines and stuff.'

'I like Dumbledore' Nicki added.

For a second, Draco looked a little intimidated before giving a sneer and having another drink of his pumpkin juice.

'He's not always like this, he's just being a git.' Nicki whispered in my ear.

'Good because I don't feel like putting up with him everyday if he's just going to be a dick.'

She laughed. 'He's not. It's just because he doesn't know you, Not to mention, no one ever stands up to him, And the way everyone keeps talking about you, he says you're the next Harry Potter.' She laughed again.

'Who's Harry Potter?' I asked.

'_Who's Harry Potter?' _Draco had overheard, and repeated my question.

'I'm serious, who is he? The guy in the wand shop mentioned him as well.'

'Harry sodding Potter… The Boy-Who-Lived…'

'Lived from what?'

Nicki looked at me. 'Well about fourteen years ago… There was this really really bad wizard… we call him You-Know-Who… and he went around killing all these people… something about a prophecy and … and he was just terrible… until he tried to kill Harry Potter but couldn't, and instead his magic backfired and everyone thought he'd died. But since then, Potter's been famous for it because no one has survived the killing curse.'

'Yeah, he's famous for it, and he bloody well loves it too.' Draco huffed.

'Aw, he so doesn't. I got paired with him in Potions once, and he was actually really shy and nice'

Nicki replied.

'He's a foul git!' He snapped.

'Sounds like someone's jealous!' I teased, sounding scarily like Jake.

'Why would _I _be jealous of Harry stinking Potter? I'm a Malfoy!'

'What's a Malfoy?'

He looked frustrated. The guy next to him laughed hard.

'I bet Harry is probably really nice. Don't be so judgemental.' I said.

'Don't worry, we all know that the only reason they hate each other is because he rejected Draco's friendship back in first year.' Nicki announced, causing Draco to blush the slightest bit.

'See? He _is _a prat! He rejected me. Nobody rejects me.'

'I would too if you'd introduced yourself to me like that. You were a stuck up pig to him, Dray!'

'Yeah well I was hoping he'd befriend me instead of going off with the Weasel.'

'Do you think he really would have wanted to? At least Weasley was nice to him. You were mean. Admit it.'

'Yeah, well…'

'Defeated!' The boy next to him shoved him jokingly.

'Shut up Greg! I regret nothing. Potter's a prat.'

'You're so stubborn. Have you ever tried being nice to people? It might get you somewhere' Nicki said flatly, but smiling a little as she looked at him.

'I'm a Malfoy. This is how I roll.'

'What the hell is a Malfoy?' I asked again.

He sighed and put his hands to his forehead.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes: I'm so glad that people have been reading this story, Thank you! ****Thanks to everyone who has added me to their favourites and given reviews and things :) It means a lot to me! **

**p.s Lara is based on me, and the character Nicki is based on my best friend. Her username on here is NickiForDraco **

**:D :D :D**

**Chapter 5**

I woke up in the morning, not daring to open my eyes in case yesterday was all just a dream. My stomach did flips at the thought. I curled up as small as I could and squashed my eyes shut as tightly as possible because all of a sudden I was really scared. I didn't want Veronica to come in and jump on my bed or have Jake tip ice cold water over me or hear The Caveman roaring….

But then I heard Nicki and the other girls laughing and I felt a massive smile spread across my face before I burst out laughing too. I sat up and looked around at my dorm. My Aussie flag was pinned up above my bed but it looked boring compared to the other girl's posters in which the pictures actually MOVED. The family photos on the table next to my bed sat frozen into position while the picture on the side of Nicki's bed was bouncing with life.

'Hey Lara! Did you sleep alright? I bet it must feel weird to wake up here, I bet you thought it was a dream, right?' Nicki came over to me and pulled me out of bed.

'Yeah, I did to be honest'

'Well… It's not a dream!' She laughed and whacked me with a pillow.

'Oi… I'm still half asleep…' I whined

'Well breakfast is in a minute, so wakey wakey!'

I groaned and reluctantly got dressed, taking my hair out and trying to get it to sit decently.

'MERLIN'S BEARD!' One of my dorm mates Millicent was staring gobsmacked at me.

'Huh?'

'Your hair! Are you a Metamorphmagus?'

'What?'

'You have a purple streak in your hair!'

'I know, I dyed it the other day' I told her, confused as the other girls Nicki, Daphne and Pansy were gawking too.

'Died it? It's not dead, is it?' She grabbed the lock and held it for a minute. 'It doesn't _feel_ dead…'

'It's not' I laughed, realising that hair dye must be only for muggles. 'It's called hair dye… stuff muggles use to change their hair colour.'

'Wow that's pretty wicked… but… It wasn't there yesterday!'

'Because I had my hair up and it was hidden. And what the hell is a metamorpha-ma-jigga?'

'Oh they're really really rare witches and wizards… I've never met one, but apparently they can change their appearance to whatever they want!' Daphne told me.

'Wow… I _wish _I was one of those.' I smoothed my hair down again, disgusted at my appearance in the mirror in front of me.

'Why would you need to be? You're pretty!' Millicent said, still playing with my purple hair.

'Yeah, you are' the other girls looked at each other in agreement.

'Thanks' I said, a bit shocked because I'd never had that amount of compliments in a row.

'Move over Milly, _I _want to do her hair!' Nicki gave Millicent a playful shove and started styling my hair for me. Millicent was really tall with dark eyes and long dark curly hair, and she looked like the type of girl that would beat you to a pulp if you said something wrong, but she completely ignored the fact that Nicki had shoved her. She just shrugged, smiled and waved goodbye to us and went downstairs into the common room with Daphne and Pansy.

'Your hair's really thick! It's good! Mine's thin so I can never think of good styles to do… can I try and do yours in a cool style?'

'Sure' I smiled, fighting the urge to complain about how annoying it was to actually have thick hair. I figured out that all girls must have at least one thing they hated about their appearance. Nicki was pretty though, she had dark green eyes and her hair was a nice chestnut colour, so I didn't know what she had to complain about. No one at Hogwarts looked ugly to me, not that it mattered anyway because I only judged by personality and the only person so far that had actually been mean to me was Draco… but I'd shown him.

Downstairs in the common room, I received more gawks than ever because Nicki had pinned the front of my hair back so that the purple streak was really obvious. I could hear Milly quickly explaining to them what hair-dye was and they all gave me the same curious look. Seriously, I couldn't be the ONLY student from a muggle family.

'Oh yeah, everyone this is Lara, as you would know. Lara, this is Greg, Vince, Blaise and Theo… and you obviously already know Draco' Milly laughed. I waved at everyone shyly and said hi. I recognised Greg and Vince from the table yesterday. A couple of younger Slytherin kids in the corner were staring at me but I just ignored them.

'We're going to be late for breakfast.' Draco said bluntly.

'Well go then. It's not like you had to wait for us.' I said to him. He sneered back at me.

'Shut up, mudblood.'

A few of the girls gasped.

'Yeah that's right, I'm a mudblood. Look how filthy I am! Careful Draco, it might rub off on ya! Oh NO!' I ran at him flailing my arms which caused him to jump out of his chair in surprise, and sneer at me before running out.

'Merlin's beard Lara… that was funny!' The girls and boys were staring at the empty chair, laughing.

'I'd better go after him though. I feel bad.' Pansy said quickly before going out to follow him. Nicki gave a scowl at her.

'Careful Nicki, she's going to steal your boyfriend.' Greg joked.

'He isn't my boyfriend. With Pansy hanging off him all the time, it's not like I'd have a chance anyway.' She snapped, walking out in a huff before anyone could say anything.

'Poor girl…' Milly said sympathetically. 'Oh and don't worry Lara, Draco's just being a git to you because you're not scared to stand up to him. He'll come around. But… he was right; we are going to be late for breakfast. Quick, let's go!'

I helped myself to some bacon and eggs on a roll, still upset over the lack of Vegemite but becoming sort of used to it.

'What do we have first?' Greg looked up at us, his mouth half full with food.

'You've got a timetable… maybe it would be a good idea to use it.' Nicki replied, laughing.

'No I don't… I lost it…'

She sighed.

'We've got potions with the bloody Griffindors.' Draco told him.

'Oh no! You've got to be joking.' Pansy whined.

'Do I _look _like I'm joking?' He replied with a blank expression on his face.

'Oh Merlin… I hope we don't have to work in pairs again. That was a _nightmare.' _Daphne looked up from her plate of salad.

'You're not the one who had their cauldron melted by Longbottom.' Nicki reminded her. 'Bloody Griffindors…' She added.

'Well that Seamus prat singed off my eyebrows that time, remember? It'd taken me ages to get them perfect and that little git just blew them right off!'

'Who are Longbottom and Seamus?' I asked, ignoring the bad comments about the Gryffindors.

'Seamus Finnigan: Blows up anything he touches. Neville Longbottom.: Dopiest boy you'll ever meet. Doesn't know his Aguamenti from his Alohomora.' Pansy told me.

'Umm… I don't either, remember?'

'Yeah but you're new here. You have an excuse.'

'Hmmm…'

I was a little nervous because what if I was bad at magic too?

'You don't come to class with us today do you? I heard you have a tutor all day for the first few days until you know enough basic magic to come to classes.'

'Yeah… I have to go and meet her after breakfast.'

'Who is she? Do you know?'

'Nope, I haven't met her yet. I hope she's nice though.'

'Well it's not any of us… so she's probably a Ravenclaw or something. Bloody know-it-alls.' Nicki said.

'The Ravenclaws've got nothing on Granger. 'Draco added.

'True that. Wow I would feel so sorry for you if you end up stuck with Granger.'

'Who's Granger?' I asked. They were making me nervous.

'Hermione Granger. Insufferable know-it-all, not to mention, she's a mudblood.' Pansy said.

'Umm… I'm a mudblood too.'

Her face went paler than usual and she looked really guilty. Everyone around her went quiet and Nicki gave her a scolding look.

'Yeah… but… you're Lara Silver. She's just…' Pansy trailed off.

'Well I don't care if they're a mudblood or a know-it-all or whatever and I don't care what house they're from, I just hope they're nice.' I replied, sparing Pansy after her accidental insult.

'If she isn't nice to you, you tell us and we'll sort her out.' Nicki replied with an evil grin.

'Well hopefully, I won't need to.' I laughed, trying to cover up how nervous I really was.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

I had to admit, despite my nervousness, I was really excited to meet my tutor and learn some magic. I ran up to my dorm to grab my wand and put something on my feet other than slippers. My shoelaces were knotted so I went to sit on my bed to fix them up before realising that there was a piece of paper on the covers next to me.

'_Good Luck today Lara._

_-A. Dumbledore.'_

I felt better then, because why would Dumbledore give me a tutor who would treat me like crap? I gave up on untying the knot, stuffed my feet into my shoes and ran downstairs and around the corner, to the place Dumbledore had told me to meet my tutor.

A bushy-haired girl in Gryffindor robes was standing there looking through a few spellbooks. I felt guilty because I hadn't remembered to look through any of mine at all.

'You must be Lara.' The girl looked up with a kind smile on her face. 'I'm Hermione Granger.'

'Hi'

'I like your hair. Did you dye it?'

I nodded. Thank god that there was someone else from a muggle family who knew what hair-dye was. I felt bad because Hermione was really friendly and I'd just been listening to my housemates have a bitch about her. She led me down a few corridors and through the huge double doors out into the grounds. The air out there was really fresh and sweet, and it made me happy.

'So, how have you been liking Hogwarts so far?'

'Liking is an understatement. LOVING is more like it! It's great! I love it already!'

She laughed. 'I love your accent!'

'I don't have an accent, you do!' I giggled before remembering having the exact same conversation with Nicki the night before. I looked away, embarrassed.

'Don't be embarrassed, it must be ever so strange to come straight here from a different country, especially seeing as it's your first time in the wizarding world. Have you ever been out of Australia before?'

'Nope, I've never really been anywhere other than my hometown… so it's really weird, but really exciting at the same time'

'How did your parents take it? I bet they were terrified when Dumbledore showed up. I'm muggle-born too, so someone from the ministry had to come and explain to my parents. They were terrified, yet amazed and proud at the same time.'

I guessed that muggle-born was the nice way to say mudblood, and I didn't want Hermione to know that the Slytherins were talking about her so I acted surprised.

'Well none of us believed him at first. My brother's a real dick so I thought he was playing some lame joke, but then my dad came out and started yelling, so Dumbledore cast some random spell and he froze solid, and that's when I started believing, because no one can ever shut my dad up when he goes on a rant. After that though, he was alright. He was just glad that he didn't have to pay any fines for the damage I'd done at my old school.'

'Petrificus totalis.' Hermione muttered, giving a little laugh. I realised that it must have been the name of the spell Dumbledore used, and Hermione was smart so she obviously recognised it.

'I bet your mother was a little more understanding about everything'

My chest sunk. The upside of having no friends before was that I never ran into this problem.

'She died when I was ten.'

Hermione's hands flew to her face instantly.

'Oh I'm so sorry… I didn't know… I'm so sorry… That must be so hard…'

'It's alright.'

She gave me a comforting hug and a warmth spread over me. I'd never had someone hug me before besides family, and these days it wasn't like they ever meant anything, coming from Jake, The Caveman and my screechy little sister.

'My family did take it pretty badly… but I'm sort of used to it now. I miss her heaps, but I know she's still here in a sense.' I gripped my necklace.

'She'll always be here for you. And I think… I think that she would be proud that you're here now.'

'Thanks'

Happy tears pricked my eyes for a second before I stood up and stared into the wind to get them to go away.

'What was your muggle school like? Mine was disastrous… the teachers never knew how to control the students.'

'Well considering I blew up my classroom, I'd say mine was pretty disastrous aswell.' I laughed

'I heard all about that… and the girl who got hit with the chair has had her memory modified, so she won't remember a thing'

'…How did you know?' I wondered.

'Rumour gets around at this school. But nobody has said anything _bad_ about you. My friend Ron was a little worried about you being sorted into Slytherin, but I told him to stop being so judgemental-'

'Wait, what? What's worrying about being in Slytherin?'

'Each house has the stereotypes that come with it. I guess they're different coming from each different house, but everyone knows that Gryffindor and Slytherin share the greatest rivalry, and seeing as that's where you were sorted, my friends were worried that you'd go bad or be rude to me like the rest of them have been.'

'I'm not bad though. I'm mean if someone is mean to me first but that's it… I wouldn't say I'm a rude person or anything, and I'm not judgemental…'

'You're not bad. You're very different though, so there must be a reason you were put in Slytherin. I hope nobody's been giving you a hard time.'

'Nah, they're all really nice to me'

Hermione looked a bit confused.

'They do seem a bit judgemental though… to the other houses. But they were all really friendly to me in the dorms and stuff, I'll tell them to not be so mean to Gryffindors. They were complaining about having potions with you guys today.'

'Well they're terrible to work with, I must admit. I think they're only like that towards the other houses, but it's still unpleasant. I'm glad you aren't like that.'

'I don't see why someone's house is such a big deal though. I hate it. It's all stereotypes and shit. I had enough of that crap at my old school. I'm gonna be friends with muggle-borns and non-muggle-borns and Gryffindors and Slytherins and Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws and whoever the hell I want, and I don't care what other people have to say about it! We're all humans!'

Hermione looked impressed after my rant.

'Well you certainly aren't a stereotypical Slytherin, so you've proved your own point.' She smiled.

'Anyway, we'd better make a start on this.' She picked up her book. 'I thought we should try a few simple spells to start you off.'

I admitted that I hadn't looked through any of my books but she said it didn't matter because they were fifth year ones anyway and I was working with first year stuff at the moment. She showed me this cool spell called Wingardium Leviosa, pointing her wand at a feather she'd gotten from her pocket and making it fly into the air to wherever she wanted.

'That's EPIC!'

She brought the feather back down and placed it in front of me.

'Now you try it.'

'Wingardium Leviosa!'

Oh, the feather flew alright. Actually no, more like shot so far out of my sight that I couldn't even see where it went.

'Wow, I knew you had strong magic but not THAT strong… How about this one instead, although I think you'll need to cover your eyes while you do it…'

She taught me the simple wand movements and I shut my eyes tightly before saying 'Lumos!'

Lucky we shut our eyes otherwise we would have both gone blind. I dropped my wand from the intense heat radiating out of it.

'Ahh!' Hermione yelped before fumbling around for my wand and yelling 'NOX!'

We opened our eyes and squinted like a hundred times before I realised how hard this was going to be for me.

'Lucky nobody's on the grounds…'

'What's this wand made out of?' Hermione studied it carefully.

'Rosewood and Veela hair' I told her.

'That's unusual… it could be the wand. Try mine. It's Vinewood and Dragon heartstring.'

She handed me the wand and we covered our eyes and tried again, but the same thing happened.

'This is going to be difficult…' She sighed.

'Well, at least no one's going to wanna mess with me now'

'They'd be mad to even bother if they'd seen this!'

'What am I going to do though? How am I meant to learn proper magic if it just explodes from my wand whenever I try?'

'Try this one… It's a powerful spell, but maybe those might be easier for you to do.'

She pulled out another book and flipped to a page titled 'The Patronus charm.'

I read for a little bit, about things called 'Dementors' that sucked peoples souls out. How lovely… not. I didn't know that the wizarding world came with weird creatures as well, but I guess I still had heaps and heaps of things to learn. I read about how I had to think of my happiest thoughts, so I dug deep and thought of one day where my family and I were in the backyard and Veronica was running around laughing and Dad was helping Jake with the remote control car and I was sitting on Mum's lap talking to her… 'Expecto patronum!'

A massive silver shield-type-thing burst from my wand and I felt instantly happy all of a sudden… and then a big, fluffy silver cat jumped out and ran all the way across the grounds until it was out of sight.

'Holy flying shit! What the hell did I just do? Was that alive?'

I turned to Hermione who was sitting there completely gobsmacked for a minute before saying 'That… was absolutely amazing.'

'Yeah I have to admit, that was friggin EPIC!'

'I've never heard of _anyone_ who could cast the Patronus charm on their first try, especially not as well as that, and with no dementors or boggarts to practice on… My friend Harry knows how to cast one but it took him lots of practice. He would be so amazed at this! He had a bit of a problem with the dementors in third year…'

'Wait, Harry as in Harry Potter?'

'Yes, you've heard of him?'

'Yeah my friend Nicki told me about him… and the guy in the wand shop said that I was similar to him for some reason.'

'I think you two would get along really well.'

'Epic! Hopefully I'll meet him soon. Can I meet all your other friends too?'

'Of course you can. I'll tell them all about you at dinner tonight. They'll be amazed.'

'Epic! Wait, so no one has ever done this before, seriously?'

'No, never…'

'But it's so easy and fun! It's like EXPECTO PATRONUM! Wheee!' I cast the charm again.

'I seriously can't believe this… The Dementors will never want to come anywhere near Hogwarts ever again if you're here. Harry will love that.'

'Look how cute that cat is. I just want to go up and pat him. I could have got a pet cat to bring here but I was like nah, because then I'd have to look after it and stuff and I already have heaps to do, oh look! Is that the feather we lost before?'

I picked up the white feather that was now in front of me and Hermione examined it carefully.

'I believe so.'

'That's really weird. Like, _really_ weird.'

'But EPIC!' Hermione copied my word and we laughed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes: **

**Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been spending all my time harvesting epic Harry Potter pics from tumblr :D**

**I think that's a pretty decent reason for not updating, don't you agree?**

**Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing 3 :D**

**Chapter 7**

After Hermione had to leave later that day, I was by myself again, but I was happy because I'd made a new friend and I had heaps of spare time to explore Hogwarts while everyone else was still in class. I thought about adventuring through the castle but changed my mind when I walked down the hall and saw about five flights of moving stairs. I didn't really feel like getting lost and running around like an idiot until someone found me… or tripping on a step and falling to my doom.

I went back to the common room to grab a jacket. It was weird walking in there and not seeing all the usual groups of people scattered around on the armchairs and lounges, but I knew there weren't going to be many occasions where I'd have it all to myself so I ended up pondering around there for a bit, looking at all the moving posters and photos that were pinned up on people's walls. It was still light outside, so I decided to take a look around the grounds before it started to get dark. It was nice to see a decent area that wasn't packed with people's rubbish, pollution and cigarette butts like back home. I ran down some stepping stones and spotted a little stone hut. I wondered if anyone lived in there but it's not like I would have just marched up and knocked on the door to find out. There was a cool-looking lake in the distance, so I ran through the trees and across the mowed lawns until my breath was pretty much gone and I had no choice but to drop down by the water onto the soft grass and lay there for a while until my body could find the strength to sit back up. When I finally did, It took me a while to take in my surroundings. The lake was beautiful and clear, and I fiddled with the zipper of my jacket, tempted to strip half-naked and jump right in there even though the weather was pretty cold. All was quiet except for the wind blowing against the trees in a forest nearby, and the chirping of the birds, and someone's breathing… that wasn't my own. When I looked to the left, there was a random boy sitting there. Thank god I didn't strip off.

'Oh hey, I didn't see you there' I said truthfully.

He looked up at me before saying 'Hey' back.

He looked pretty nervous for some reason, but he seemed harmless so I decided to make conversation and sit down beside him.

'What year are you in?'

'5th' He replied. His black hair was a bit long and fell into his face, but I still noticed his green eyes, which were almost the same colour as the grass below him.

'Same… well as of yesterday anyway. I just got here from Australia… wait why am I telling you this? You probably already know… everyone knows who I am here already so there's no point in introducing myself because whenever anyone sees me they're like OH LOOK that's that Lara girl from Australia! And I'm just like… huh?'

'Yeah I know how that feels…'

'Do you really?'

'Yeah…'

'It's alright I guess, but it's like they more about me than I do. I had the guy in the wand shop compare me to some Harry Potter guy, and I was like "Whos that?" And my new friend Nicki told me about how someone tried to kill him when he was a baby or something. Have you heard of him?'

He gave me a look of confusion while I stared at him with a blank expression on my face, trying to figure out what he was thinking. He looked away for a little bit, then looked back at me again, laughing a little.

'Yeah, I've heard of him.'

'Hermione reckons I'd get along with him.' I noticed the scarlet and gold tie he was wearing. 'Oh, you're in Gryffindor too. Do you know her?'

'She's my best friend, along with my other friend Ron'

'Oh, epic! Well Hermione's really nice, so I'm guessing she hangs around nice people, and you hang around with her so you must be nice, and Ron too, and she says she knows Harry Potter so he must be a nice person as well. Sorry for talking so much but I'm really curious. Do you know him?'

He laughed. 'That's alright… and yeah… I know him.'

'Epic. That's good because that means I'll probably get to meet him soon, and I'd get along with him because everyone keeps comparing us so yeah… and I'm not going to listen to the other Slytherins have a whinge about him either. I like everyone here, I don't care about houses and shit.'

I looked to the side nervously. I'd noticed in the past few days that I over-talked when I was nervous, which I hadn't realised before, because I'd never really talked to anyone new unless they were firing insults or picking a fight.

'Sorry… I over-talk when I'm nervous' I told him the newly found fact.

'…Do I make you nervous?' He replied jokingly.

'What? No!' I attempted to play it cool but failed. The boy just laughed and didn't seem to be weirded out or want me to get lost.

A cold breeze hit us and he looked up to notice the sun beginning to set behind the castle.

'We'd better head to the great hall or we'll be late for dinner.'

'I just want to sit here for a minute longer… I'll go up in a minute.'

'Okay' He said. 'See you around then.'

'Wait! What's your name? You never told me.'

'Oh. Uhh… Umm…It's… well… It's James' He replied nervously. He obviously didn't like his name very much because it had taken him that long to spit it out.

'That's a nice name. I'm Lara… as you already know but I just introduced myself anyway so yeah. See you later then!' I replied cheerfully.

'Bye!'

I got into the great hall just as the food appeared on the tables. I still didn't understand how the hell it did that…

I scanned the hall to look for James and Hermione but everyone was staring at me and it was making me feel awkward, so I decided to wait till tomorrow when I would see Hermione again and just head the Slytherin table.

'Hey everyone' I sat down in the empty spot between Nicki and Vince.

'Hi Lara!' Everyone replied cheerfully. Even Draco gave a small nod of greeting.

'How was your tutoring today?' Nicki asked. 'I'm sorry you ended up stuck with Granger… I found that out when she wasn't in Charms… I felt so bad.'

'It was good...' I avoided telling them about casting the Patronus because I didn't really feel like having everyone ogle over me like I was some amazing person. 'And why did you feel bad? Hermione's really friendly and nice and she taught me heaps of stuff'

'Yeah, but… It's _Granger. _She's a Gryffindor.'

'And she's nice. I don't see what's wrong with her. Has she ever done anything to you?'

'Well no, but-'

'Then that's that.'

I helped myself to a baked potato and Nicki seemed to realise that she couldn't argue with me about it, so she shrugged it off and kept eating.

'Did any of you notice that strange lightning earlier?' Pansy asked, leaning against Draco and copping a foul glare from Nicki.

'What lightning?' Greg replied.

'You know, those big flashes of it during potions!'

'That wasn't lightning… no way. I was looking out the window when it happened.' Vince told him. 'They were giant flares of light… coming from somewhere in the grounds.'

My stomach churned nervously as they kept babbling on about it, before Draco looked at me and said 'You were outside today, weren't you? Did you see what happened?'

'Yeah… it was me…' I admitted, looking down at my plate.

'Rubbish!' He replied.

'Lara, it was only your first day of learning magic, people can never do things like that… none of us could even do it!' Daphne added.

'You don't need to lie to get us to like you, you know' Nicki said.

That pissed me off.

'Do you seriously think I'm lying about that shit? Give me one good reason why I would lie.'

'Well… because you didn't have friends at your other school, you were hoping to make friends here and-'

'What the hell? I never told any of you about that! Not that it's any of your business anyway… but seeing as you all know _so _much about me, you should also know that I'm not a liar and I don't make up shit to get people to like me and to be honest I don't really care who likes me and who doesn't. You want proof of what I did? I'll show you for yourselves!'

Later that night after dinner, I was standing on the lounge in the common room, holding up my wand.

'Okay, you ready? Cover your eyes!'

'Cover our eyes? How are we supposed to know if you even do anything!' Draco snapped in disbelief.

I shot a glare at him. 'Feel like going blind?'

He frowned.

'Didn't think so. Anyways, seriously guys, cover your eyes. Trust me. If you don't, you'll bloody regret it so just listen ok. You ready?'

Their hands all flew across their eyes in obedience.

It would have been funny if I had been lying earlier, because they would have obeyed me like trained dogs for nothing.

I swished my wand forward and yelled 'LUMOS!' And just like earlier, the massive light beamed out and shone through my eyelids.

'Merlin…' Pansy breathed.

I opened my eyes again to see everyone's gobsmacked faces. I definitely wasn't mentioning the Patronus now. I felt awkward but glad that I'd proved myself to everyone who doubted me. Draco actually looked impressed, and didn't try to cover it up with his usual sneer or snarl.

Then the whispers started and I felt awkward again, so I grinned nervously and said 'Seeya guys' Before heading up to my dorm, followed by Nicki.

'That was seriously so amazing Lara.' She said.

'Thanks.'

'Sorry, you're feeling a little overwhelmed now, aren't you. I'll stop talking about magic, but wow… just wow.'

I shifted into a cross legged position on my bed.

'I think Draco has respect for you now.'

'Really? Good.' I laughed.

'Oh and did you see Pansy all over him? Have you noticed that? She hangs around him like flies to a rotting corpse.'

'…Nice simile.'

She laughed. 'But really! Haven't you noticed!'

'Yeah, but what does it matter?'

'It's annoying! She's always hugging him and flirting and he doesn't even want her!'

'Yeah… but, what does it matter?' I asked again.

She was getting really frustrated and worked up over it, and I suddenly realised why.

'You like him.' I said with a cheeky grin on my face.

'No I don't!'

'You so do.'

'Do not!'

'Then why else would you care? Seriously?'

'Because he doesn't even _like_ her!'

'How do you know that? What if he does?'

'HE DOESN'T!'

'Okay… jeez, settle down.'

'Sorry…'

She calmed down for a bit, but as the room went quiet, Pansy's shrill giggles could be heard from downstairs and Nicki growled.

'Nicki loves Draco!' I sung teasingly.

'Shut up, shut up shut UP! If you tell anyone, I'll never talk to you again okay? I mean it!'

I grinned again. 'So you admit it now? You like him.'

'OKAY! But DON'T tell anyone, nobody else knows.'

'Really? No one else has noticed you shooting Pansy death glares?'

'Is it that obvious? Oh no…' She freaked out a bit.

'Don't worry, no one will hear it from me.'

'Good.'

'Why don't you tell him?'

'Are you mad? No way!'

'Why?'

'Because that's embarrassing. He's a Malfoy and a pure blood. He wouldn't be interested in a half-blood like me.'

'Okay seriously… What is a Malfoy?'

She erupted in laughter.


End file.
